Universe age: 13.826 billion years
The universe is estimated to be 13.826 billion years old, a figure with only a tiny uncertainty according to current cosmological models.
Snapshot · The Shawn Ryan Show
#316 Brian Keating - The First Object Ever Found From Another Solar System
Explore episode
Jun 25, 2026
Where this was said
The BICEP Experiment: Discovery, Announcement, and Retraction
At 2:14:05 · chapter starts 2:13:10
Keating explains the instrumental physics of CMB detection: microwaves are absorbed by water, so detection requires environments with no water vapor — the South Pole and Chile's Atacama at 17,000 feet. His BICEP telescope was designed to find a specific polarization signature in the CMB called B-modes, which would be the 'shrapnel' of the inflationary explosion that started the Big Bang. Using the analogy of detecting gunshot evidence through multiple channels — sonic, visual, chemical, radioactive — he explains how physicists devise indirect detection methods for phenomena they can never directly observe. The stage is set for the announcement that rocked cosmology. [1] — Brian Keating "In 2014, Brian Keating's BICEP team announced they had detected the gravitational wave signature of cosmic inflation — the primer strike of…" 2:19:00
The Big Bang, Cosmic Microwave Background, and What Happened the Day Before
The cosmic microwave background is the leftover heat from nuclear fusion at the universe's birth — still detectable today. To find it, you need to go where there's no water: Antarctica or the Atacama Desert. Brian Keating dedicated his career to capturing its faintest signal to answer humanity's oldest question: what happened before the Big Bang?
The BICEP Experiment: Almost Winning — and Losing — the Nobel Prize
In 2014, Brian Keating's BICEP team announced they had detected the gravitational wave signature of cosmic inflation — the primer strike of the Big Bang itself. It made headlines worldwide. Then it turned out to be dust from dead stars. The ultimate lesson: you are the easiest person to fool yourself.
Similar snapshots
540M years ago: first animal vision
Animals first sensed light 540 million years ago, triggering an evolutionary acceleration known as the Cambrian explosion within 10 million years.
50% of cortex involved in vision
It is estimated that half of all cortical activity in the human brain is involved in visual function, underscoring vision's central role in intelligence.
Human 6-year-olds learn tens of thousands of object categories
Cognitive neuroscience literature shows that by age 6, humans can recognize tens of thousands of different object categories — far more data than early AI systems were trained on.
~3% of FDA drugs have unclear mechanisms
Only about 3% of FDA-approved drugs have genuinely unclear mechanisms of action, making an unknown mechanism a meaningful early red flag for any compound.
30–50% of phase 1 drugs fail to reach phase 2
Even compounds that clear preclinical testing often fail in humans: 30 to 50% of drugs entering phase 1 trials do not advance to phase 2, frequently because human behavior differs from animal models.
BPC-157 published work: >80% from one group
More than 80% of published BPC-157 research comes from a single academic group whose researchers have IP and commercial interests connected to the molecule, limiting independent replication.
~100 approved peptide drugs; ~150 in trials
Roughly 100 peptide drugs are already FDA-approved, about 150 more are in clinical trials, and 600–700 are in preclinical development, underscoring the legitimacy of peptide science broadly.
BPC-157 founder withheld screening method
The scientist who discovered BPC-157 refused to disclose the screening method used to identify the compound and has never fully published the parent protein sequence — what Peter Attia calls 'scientific trust me, bro.'
Brain barely distinguishes imagined vs real
The brain's visual, auditory, and motor cortices light up nearly identically whether an experience is real or imagined, making visualization a form of actual neural training.
